The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), in furtherance of its commitment to African entrepreneurship, has disbursed $2.5 million seed capital to beneficiaries of the 2019 Entrepreneurship Programme under the African Development Bank (AfDB)-sponsored $5 million initiative.
The second half of $2.5 million is expected to be released to participating entrepreneurs in the first quarter of this year.
This commitment of the African Development Bank to the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme follows the recent disbursement of $8.5 million from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to 2,648 entrepreneurs in the Sahel region and Africa. It also accelerates the economic empowerment plan being generated by the Foundation. In collaboration with African and global partners, the Foundation significantly increased the scale and reach of its impact in 2019, with the number of TEF beneficiaries rising from its annual commitment of 1,000, to 5,150.
With its goal of strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises and developing young entrepreneurs, AfDB joined the growing list of global development institutions benefiting from the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s unique model of identifying, training, mentoring and funding entrepreneurs and start-ups across Africa. The partnership demonstrates the implementation of the 10-year AfDB “Jobs for Youth in Africa” strategy, launched in 2016 to support the creation of 25 million meaningful jobs across the continent.
The partnership demonstrates the willingness of the Foundation to share its infrastructure and know-how with others who share the TEF mission of empowering young African entrepreneurs and its goal of catalysing economic growth across the continent, by creating millions of jobs and generating billions in revenue.
